the weekly pencil.

This week has been the best pencil week ever! I had been dying to get my hands on the limited edition Blackwing 211 since it sold out a week after release. Thankfully, the pencil community came through and my pencil pal Andi sent me a few to review. Andi has a blog as well and you should definitely check it out! So now on to the 211:

One can see the sheer beauty of the 211 as its natural wood-grain contrasts with its gold ferrule and brown eraser. The barrel of the pencil is nice and smooth and the black stamping is perfect and precise. I could not wait to sharpen this pencil! I sharpened the 211 with my usual tool, the Palomino Long Point Sharpener.

As you can see, I love how sharp the slats appear after sharpening-- this pencil is really a beauty. All aesthetics aside, let's get to the writing portion of the review. I had a lot of note-taking this week for my classes and the Blackwing 211 came through. Point retention is amazing and the pencil writes so velvety smooth that I almost did not want to ever review another pencil again. I had no trouble with point breakage in the sharpener and by the end of my busy week, I still had so much pencil left to use. It could be surmised that this pencil would last one for two weeks with pretty consistent writing which makes the price of this pencil worth it.

The above picture is the pencil length after 7 solid days of use. Not only is the Blackwing 211 photogenic, but she's useful too! The only way you can come across this pencil is finding an odd retailer that still has some in stock or on Ebay. Fret not though because I have been told that the graphite is the same as the Blackwing 602, a pencil that is always available. No, you will not have this gorgeous wood-grain version, but to me a pencil's utility is worth more than what it looks like. Still, you can't help but marvel in the 211's glory. Overall 10/10!

*For any of you wondering how you can get your hands on these awesome Blackwing limited edition pencils, you can sign up for a Volumes subscription here.